My education in geography includes the BS, MS, and PhD in geography, and a PhD minor in rural demography from the University of Wisconsin. Much of my early research was on rural demographic and economic systems and the dynamics of changing rural society in American small towns, using a large national sample of places. I have worked with communities in Wisconsin, West Virginia, Idaho and elsewhere on strategies for local economic development and modeling the process of growth and decline. With funding from the Fulbright Foundation, NSF, and NGS , I extended my economic development research to Europe, including Nordic and ex-Soviet countries.
Following several funded projects on foreign direct investment into ex-socialist emerging market economies in eastern Europe and Russia, and research on ethnic integration in the new economy of Macedonia, funded by U.S. Dept. of State, I am currently working on research funded by NSF on adaptation to climate change in development planning in high latitude municipalities in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. Two papers are available on this project and are in review for publication. One is about the cases in Russia, the other on northern vs. southern Norway and effects of development differences and demographic trends.

Johansen, H.E. and A. Panova. “Adaptation and Survival of Early FDI firms in Post-Soviet Space: St. Petersburg and Baltic Country Locations.” Chapter in Reponen, T. and K. Liuhto, eds. Future Competitiveness of the EU and its Eastern Neighbors. Turku: Pan European Institute. 2007.